关键词: 制造业服务化, 商业模式创新, 资源整合, 案例研究

Abstract: The competition among manufacturers, especially capital equipment manufacturers, is becoming more and more intensive while there is little room left for these firms to capture reasonable profit margin. It has become an inevitable industrial trend that manufacturing firms are encouraged to pursue the strategy of servitization through which value-added service-related activities such as contracting, system integration, equipment leasing, integrated solution providing and remanufacturing are carried out in order to create more values for both the clients and the firms. As a way of strategic transformation which has brought the focus of business onto the realization of clients’ value, servitization has introduced to us a brand-new business logic in which client-orientation is stressed and high-end service provision has been made as a new source of revenue with higher level of sustainability. Manufacturers need to re-construct their business models in order to realize business logic shift from being a traditional supplier-based manufacturer to being a client-focused manufacturer pursuing servitization. In essence, each element within the business model needs to be re-examined before the servitization strategy is carried out; these elements include value proposition, business procedures, external relations and profit models.The strategy of servitization means a manufacturer’ s transformation from being a simple product supplier or supplier of products and affiliated services to being a supplier of complete “product-service packages” through which process two types of services are provided, namely, services supporting the product (SSP) and services supporting the client (SSC). Since these two types of services involve different kinds of resources and capabilities and different levels of resource integration, the success of servitization transformation is dependent, to a large extent, on the smooth re-allocation and re-integration of the firms’ key resources and capabilities. However, existing literature shows a research gap that needs to be bridged where the internal logic and realization path of servitization remains ambiguous. Thus, when analyzing the path to realize servitization, both the business model view and the resource-based view should be taken into consideration.Therefore, based on the resource-based view and integration of leading-edge theories in manufacturing servitization and business model innovation, this paper builds a theoretical model encompassing both the four inter-related business model elements and the key resources and capabilities of the firm serving as the foundation of the business model transformation. Then, based on the theoretical framework, a dual-case study on two Chinese equipment manufacturers is conducted to reveal the mechanism of business model innovation in servitization in greater detail. By cross-comparison of the four business model elements of both case firms and categorizing the resource-integration processes into four different types based on the attributes of the four business model elements, this paper explores the internal logic between a manufacturing firm’s resources and capabilities in the process of servitization business model innovation, while investigating on the specific route taken by manufacturers in order to realize their business model transformation.Through the in-depth cross-case study mentioned above with integration of both the business model and resource integration view, this paper has found that first, the transformation from product-oriented manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing has led to the shift in the value proposition focus of the manufacturers from product to service providing, which requires the inclination of the firms’ key resources and capabilities towards service provision. This process stresses the important role of such capabilities as those in client-need interpretation and service logic transformation. Second, in the aspect of business procedures, the existing manufacturing-based resources and capabilities that the firms have serve as the foundation of their servitization transformation, while the significance of the role in organizing and balancing both product and service provision grows with the deepening of the firms’ progress in servitization. Third, with regard to the firms’ external relations, while the servitizing firms are making efforts in building their own images, they should also pay attention to the evaluation of their partners’ capabilities. Last but not least, the servitization transformation of capital intensive manufacturing firms is more dependent on their financing capabilities, which are very closely related with the firms’ resources such as their brand image, capital strength and external relations and so on.Specifically, the managerial implications that this paper provides are as follows. First，as a means of strategic transformation, servitization can be understood as an intrinsic process of shift in manufacturers’ business model; thus, the essence of servitization is the process of business model innovation in manufacturing firms and the external manifestation of servitization is the restructuring of the firms’ key business model elements, which include value proposition, business procedures, profit model and external relations; so the internal momentum propelling the progress of servitization is the re-integration of the firms’ critical resources and capabilities; second, to realize servitization, resources need to be re-classified according to different attributes of the firm’s business model elements before resource integration; the existing critical resources and capabilities of the firm serve as a necessary foundation for servitization transformation, while the success of servitization transformation lies in the dynamic balance between the firm’s traditional manufacturing resources and the emerging service-oriented resources required to realize the business model transformation; third, manufacturing servitization is a long-term process, different emphases and approaches of resource integration should be applied to firms at different stages of servitization according to specific advantages that the firms have in their critical resources and capabilities. In general, at the preliminary stage of servitization, the manufacturing firms are required to stress the transformation of service logic through executing changes in their organizational structures, business procedures and corporate cultures; in the meanwhile, they also need to foster their capabilities in managing their external relations so as to acquire more external resources to promote the maturity of their servitization transformation. In addition, manufacturers should take a client-centric orientation and integrate their key resources to form specific resource bundles required by different servitization business needs in order to provide different levels of services to their clients. However, at the matured stage, the manufacturers should never forget to consolidate their manufacturing bases and ensure a healthy balance between product and service provision so to avoid over-inclination of resources towards service-provision due to the fast pace in servitization progress.

Key words: servitization of the manufacturing industry, business model innovation, resource integration, case study